Malaysian Malay Muslim

Note

Saturday, May 24, 2014

There have been many issues that have cropped up for the past year but none as mystifying as the case of the missing MAS flight MH370.

It has been 10 weeks since its fateful flight on 8 March 2014 and as yet there appears to be no development in the progress of its search. Its whereabouts remains a mystery.

I am taking this opportunity to extend my prayers to the families of the missing passengers onboard, and I share the regret that closure is nowhere near. I am not interested in talking about conspiracies or lapses; the truth is that fate falls upon the society it reflects.

Monday, May 13, 2013

The recently
concluded GE13 have shown the continued resilience of UMNO as the backbone of
the ruling Barisan Nasional which was again successful in returning to power
albeit with a reduced majority of 133 seats in the Parliament. Standing
as a marriage of convenience for the second election running, the Pakatan
Rakyat managed to wrest 89 seats with DAP leading the final tally of 38 seats
followed by PKR with 30 seats and PAS with 21. Anything can happen in
politics, they say, but for BN, the future seems to be written on the wall as
far as its political relevance and longevity is concerned.

The achievement of
the ruling coalition at the federal level underlines the downtrend of support
for the Barisan Nasional which was unable to improve on its achievement in 2008
where they won 140 parliamentary seats. This is the first time that the
coalition was unable to garner a minimum of 60% of the seats in the Dewan
Rakyat. This is also the lowest tally of popular votes for BN as its 47% beats
the previous 49.3% it garnered as the then Alliance Party in 1969.

A more disturbing
trend is the absence of UMNO major coalition partners from the Malaysian
peninsula as GE13 has left UMNO's allies such as MCA, Gerakan and PPP
devastated. Whilst MIC has somewhat improved on its showing from 2008
(perhaps galvanised by its new president Datuk Seri G Palanivel and its new
stalwarts such as P Kamalanathan), MCA which won 7 seats altogether lost all of
its seats in Chinese-majority electorates. This also marks its worst
achievement ever in the general election.

Gerakan which held
the Penang Chief Ministership for almost four decades was wiped out altogether
from Penang and has only P151 Simpang Renggam to show as its sole Parliamentary
representative. PPP, the smallest component in the Barisan Nasional fold,
lost all the seats it contested.

The seemingly
hollow victory for BN now begs the question which many Malaysians will want to
know, be it the electorates, the BN component parties, opposition pact, or the
regular Malaysian Malay Muslim. With the result of the PRU13 now all but
done and dusted they will want to know what now for UMNO?

A reading from the
general election shows what the BN Chairman Datuk Seri Mohd Najib Tun Razak
('DSMNTR') termed as the 'Chinese Tsunami'. The near complete rejection
of Chinese BN representatives now leaves the Prime Minister with a lingering
question on how his cabinet will look sans Chinese ministers via MCA.
More importantly, the issue on the future of the support of the Chinese
electorate must be addressed even if the solution transcends race (which the tried
and tested power-sharing formula of the BN is derived from).

Another reading
from the election is the emerging pattern of the rural-urban divide which puts
BN in a precarious position moving forward. As it stands the power base
of UMNO has consistently been the rural areas which are predominantly
low-income Bumiputera electorates. The challenge now is to expand the BN
support into the territory of DAP and PKR of the Pakatan Rakyat in the mostly
urban-mixed electorate in the states of Perak, Penang, Selangor and Federal
Territory Kuala Lumpur.

Another important
reading of the GE13 is in the continued debate of the 'Bumiputera Agenda' which
has always been at the forefront of UMNO's struggles. In order to push
for its powerbase in the urban-mixed areas, UMNO will need to interpret its
principles in a bigger, inclusive spectrum. This fight for the rights of
Malays and Bumiputeras should not be done whilst negating the rights of the
Malays in Kelantan, or at the expense of its focus in the promise to assist MIC
with its Indian social-reform agenda.

In order to lead
his call for reform and reconciliation, DSMNTR will need to get assistance from
strong characters as well as to entice new blood into the party. The new
addition will in turn need to be able to change the negative perceptions of the
party as well as the existing habits that have been entrenched within the
mammoth structure of UMNO and BN.

Just who are these
'change agents', how they are wooed into the BN and whether they are enough to
aid the party at his time of need is anyone's guess. One thing for sure
is that the change agents must be throwbacks to the UMNO that was successful in
its struggle for independence many, many years ago in that they are high in
integrity as well as sincerity in helping UMNO and BN with its cause.

A long shot it may
seem, but as they say again, anything can happen in politics.

Friday, April 5, 2013

The much-anticipated announcement has now been made - the dissolution of Parliament was televised and thus puts an end to a colourful chapter in the young history of the Malaysian democracy which saw the change of PM, the loss of five states by the ruling government, and the eventual recapture of one, and of course a twelve-round blow-for-blow by-election with interestingly a level outcome. Therefore, it seems that no one can be faulted for making the assumption that the coming General Election will be the most if not one of the most anticipated of all.

Names of new faces are being circulated but currently the most enticing probable battles of them all involve heavyweights. Already the talk on the prospect of one-on-one showdowns in parliamentay seats of Gelang Patah, Bagan Datoh, Gua Musang, Lembah Pantai and Kulim - Bandar Baru to name a few, are hotting up with LKS vs DAGO slated at the site of Iskandar Malaysia and DSAZH entertains the visit of former fellow UM-Alumni DSAI to his hometown. At the time of writing DSAI had instead made up his mind to stick to his own hometown at Permatang Pauh.

More twists and turns are expected in this edition run-up to the polls but as a proud Malaysian Malay Muslim I hope that above all the GE2013 will be remembered for the good things instead of the bad.

There were many familiar faces with the incumbents holding to the Chairman and Secretary General's post. Curiously, none of the Malay Muslim DAP members were elected which in turn necessited some of their selection under the 'closed-door' office bearer selection meeting.

The selected 'some' were only 'few', ie two, namely Dr Ariffin Omar (Vice Chairman, one of five with the other four all elected) and Zairil Khir Johari (Assistant National Publicity Secretary, the other being the elected Teo Nie Ching with 903 votes) with Ahmad Ton (with 347 votes, only 1 vote less compared to Dr Ariffin and 42 more than Zairil) completely overlooked.

I am in the opinion that the decision of the DAP of appointing Dr Ariffin and Zairil into the CEC, whilst provided in their constitution, should have not been done in the first place. Apart from giving the perception to its members as well as the public that the 'back-door' selection is an unethical way to put certain individuals onto key posts by sacrificing other members who had garnered higher votes, it does to a certain extent pour fuel to the argument that DAP is run just as any race-based party with the need of allocation of quotas based on race.

I can imagine the appointed members having 'inferiority complex' as all others are there in the CEC on merit whilst them benefitting from a decision based on some clandestine strategic wheeling-dealing. Pressing forward, if one wishes to do away with the Bumiputra privileges than what better time to prove it than now.

My suggestion to Dr Ariffin and to Zairil is to politely decline the selection and instead work on strengthening their positions within the grassroots. What is certain for the rejected Malay Muslim candidates is the fact that they will need to find out the reason why they were rejected in the first place. If they are deemed not good enough for their party then what would the voting public make of them come the General Election 2013?

Of course, a worse outcome would be the staging of a massive walkout by all Malay Muslim members out of the DAP into other political parties while at the same time accusing DAP of being racist (and nepotistic, a claim DAP hurls to its rivals in the ruling government).

That to DAP is a scary thought, but a thought neither a rocket scientist, nor a 'Rocket' reader would have difficulty figuring out.